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 Forum index » Chaotic Fiction » Marble Hornets
Alignment Theory and Character Analysis
Moderators: Giskard, JKatkina, Zarggg
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Starkley
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Joined: 12 Jul 2012
Posts: 326

 		Alignment Theory and Character Analysis
Motives of TTA and Alex; Character Dynamics, and Endgame Predictions
NOTE: This is less of a directed theory and more of an analysis of charcter dynamics, particularly the relationship and opposition between TTA/Hoody and Alex, and how their opposition affects Jay and Tim's positions in their struggle.

Introduction

You know, I was flipping through previous entries, and I noticed on TTA's "Fragments" that TTA has been hinting for quite a while that Alex Kralie needs to be dead. He has considered Alex broken/messed up/otherwise "distorted" for quite some time. We assume this to be due to Alex's complicity with The Operator. TTA wanting Alex dead has been a recurring motive; we've seen it in a bunch of his other videos too (such as "Decay").

If "File" is directly addressing Tim throughout, it could be that TTA is starting to view Tim as antagonistic. "You are not trusted" and "Another failure" could be TTA referring to how much Tim has screwed up recently (Letting Jay find that tape, losing Jay's trust). If TTA considers Tim "distorted" and refers to Alex in the same way, he may be categorizing them together.

This isn't to say that Tim and Alex are on the same side - obviously not - but maybe this video indicates that TTA views them both as expendable by this point. If Tim isn't trusted by Jay (alternative, if Hoody can't trust or rely on Tim) then he's useless to Hoody.

This holds with the relationship between Hoody and TImasky in previous entries; TTA would tell Jay to be somewhere (like in 19) and then Tim would suddenly be there. The relationship has typically been Hoody in the background, Timasky at the front, with Hoody only ever coming out when necessary (except in #45, oddly). Tim's role has been the field operative, Hoody's role has been the coordinator. This holds for #49, #52, #19, #35, etc.

With Tim failing in his role, marking both Alex and Tim as "distorted," which has a negative connotation for TTA, may mark them both as expendable and even possibly may mark Tim as an enemy, since he's running counter to TTA's demands.

Main Theory

Therefore, I theorize that perhaps TTA has had a similar relationship or has attempted to manipulate Alex in the past. This could explain Alex's reaction to Hoody in #45; he knows someone's been following him around for their own purposes and now considers that person an enemy. By this point TTA considers Alex an enemy.

However, from earlier entries it appears that Alex used to at least pretend that he was trying to investigate TO from a standpoint of being aligned against TO. I point to Entry #22, in which Alex is exploring that boiler room with Seth. If Seth was already involved in the investigation under false pretenses of trying to figure out the cause of all the paranormal disturbences happening on the set of Marble Hornets, it is possible that TTA also believed Alex to be investigating the disturbances, then becoming disillusioned when he learned that Alex was actually aligned WITH The Operator.

This doesn't have to mean that Seth IS TTA, I'm not opening that can of worms. It could just as easily be Brian. It would just have to be someone who has been deceived by Alex while believing that Alex has been actually opposed to The Operator (which does narrow it down to Seth and Hoody, with the stronger likelihood of Seth since Brian didn't seem to know what's going on). However, that's not the point of this theory. For all we know, TTA could even be neither charcter (although this seems unlikely; TTA should have been aware of TO from an early point, given the events of "Exit," in which it appears Jay has been being watched by a third party for a very long time.

I wish to outline the current alignments and propose an endgame scenario. Because it seems that whoever works or associates with Hoody/TTA eventually becomes dissociated from him (Tim by now, possibly Alex based on the charcterization of their antagonistic relationship), I propose that since Jay's only lead IS TTA, he will begin to gravitate more openly towards Hoody.

After all, it appears to Jay that TTA is the only one helping him and NOT attacking or blatantly deceiving him all this time (it should appear to us that way too; Hoody/TTA appears to have been attempting to show Jay things, such as in "observation," Entry #60/60.5, in #51 and #41 he seems to be responsible for retrieving the camera that records events, etc). So it makes sense that alignment-wise, Jay might move towards TTA.

Totheark's/Hoody's Alignment

TTA's motivation definitely appears to be threefold: to kill Alex, to find "the Ark," and to reveal the extent of Alex's crimes and actions. These motivations seem to have coincided with both Jay and Tim in the past; Tim is opposed to Alex as well, whether or not he's in a Masky state, and while Jay does not actively seek to hurt Alex, uncovering his activities will theoretically lead Jay to the fate of his lost friends.

However, if the cycle I have observed in this theory repeats itself (TTA uses a proxy to conduct investigations, the proxy becomes aware or disillusioned of/with TTA's true motivations and personality, TTA considers them an enemy), then this brief partnership should end in Jay becoming apposite to TTA in regards to alignment as well.

The current state of affairs could be best described as a triangle, in which Tim, Alex, and TTA/Hoody all stand at individual, separate vertices. Jay is somewhere in the middle of this triangle, but gravitating towards TTA. If the cycle repeats itself, the endgame could be EVERYONE positioned against TTA.

Alex's Alignment

Of course, this is complicated by the fact that Alex pretty much wants everyone dead. If we're going to describe alignments completely, we need to examine his motivations as well. Interestingly, Alex only wants those dead who insist on investigating him.

Entry #52 is the best example of what motivates Alex in regards to charcterizing people as enemies. He states "I didn't want to get Jessica involved!" and "I've had plenty of opportunities to do this," when confronting Jessica and Jay in the shack with his gun. He then blames Jay for the current state of affairs, saying "That's your fault!"

Additionally, Alex seems to have no real inclination towards necesarily killing (or permanently incapacitating via slendy-feeding) his victims, mind-wiping seems to work just as well, given the fact that Tim remains alive and conscious despite being attacked by Alex multiple times (and conceivably losing his memory at least once); likewise with Jay, as has been shown in Entry #71, when Jay is clearly attacked by Alex but remains present in this world.

To me, this means that Alex actually has no motivations beyond covering up what he did to Tim and Brian (and possibly Seth in #22). Killing is a last-resort when mind-wiping isn't enough - which is the case now that recorded footage consistently reminds victims of what has been done to them and their friends. Who ensures that this footage remains available regardless of what happens to Alex's victims? Hoody.

Obviously Timasky and Hoody impede upon this desire of Alex's not to be investigated; therefore, his motivations in contacting Jay around the events of Entries #34-#37 must have been to get rid of Hoody and Timasky. He was benign towards Jay, in that his motivation was to stop Tim and Hoody from haunting him, and working with Jay was convenient for locating them or drawing them out (as he may have realized from watching Jay's videos). However, once Jay started to investigate Alex too much, Alex decided he had to get rid of Jay.

When Jay then contacted Jessica, and got her involved in looking for Amy, inevitably Alex resolved that she needed to die too, resulting in the confrontation we observe in #52.

Endgame Alignments

This leads us to a complicated situation in which Jay's motivations are potentially incompatible with both TTA and Alex (but not necessarily Tim). Jay's partnership with TTA can only go as far as TTA needs it to go before he marks Jay as expendable (he's not really careful with Jay even now). Jay cannot work with Alex as long as Alex aligns himself with The Operator. And Jay no longer trusts Tim because he believes Tim is another antagonist. (This does not necessarily need to be true.)

The endgame therefore seems to be moving towards a position in which no one trusts anyone (although Tim doesn't seem to have anything in particular against Jay at this point). Totheark may accelerate a joint confrontation between Tim, Alex, and Jay, with himself watching on the sidelines. However, there is no endgame where Alex ceases to view Hoody as a known enemy. It is most convenient for Hoody, Jay and Tim to work against Alex; however, they may not be able to continue a partnership with TTA long-term. If everyone jointly comes to the realization that TTA has his own motivations that do not have any of their best interests at heart, they may all join against TTA. It becomes a matter of whose dark secrets are more urgently a problem; Alex's or TTA's.

Because Jay's motivations REQUIRE him to overcome The Operator and further investigate Alex to get to wherever she may be kept in the Dark World of #65, it seems that Alex is the primary antagonist. However, afterwards, it may be that TTA will then rise as the new antagonist, given his tendency to leave his proxies to the wolves. This may simply be in the form of abandoning Jay and Tim to The Operator, but I predict that both parties will ultimately be placed in a position of opposition against TTA.

This concludes my analysis of the primary antagonists' motivations and prediction of the endgame alignments.
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 12, 2013 12:10 pm
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kiar
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Joined: 20 Sep 2013
Posts: 13

 		Re: Alignment Theory and Character Analysis
Motives of TTA and Alex; Character Dynamics, and Endgame Predictions
Starkley wrote:
"You are not trusted" and "Another failure" could be TTA referring to how much Tim has screwed up recently (Letting Jay find that tape, losing Jay's trust).


My biggest problem with that is that it was Hoody who alerted Jay to the fact that the tape even existed in the first place. If he hadn't explicitly shown the tape in his video, Tim would never have had to try and hide it from Jay. It seems to me that that was Hoody working directly against Tim, trying to put a strain in Tim/Jay's alliance. My question is why Masky would not want them working together. What does he have against Tim, and why did he stop working with Tim/Masky in the first place?

PostPosted: Sat Oct 12, 2013 1:16 pm
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ToTheArcanine
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Joined: 14 Feb 2012
Posts: 200

 		First, may I just say I thoroughly enjoyed reading through this? You did a great job articulating your points Starkley.

Concerning Hoodie pointing out the "Tape of Distrust", I think he's been wanting Jay to see the tape for a while now. As others have pointed out, TTA has been hinting at Jessica's disappearance in his vids for a while now. He must've then known what was on the tape and apparently Tim knew as well.
What does this mean? It means that Hoodie flaunted the tape to Jay not because he wanted to break the two apart but because he wanted Tim to get on with it and show Jay the video. The fellowship only broke up because Tim kept trying to keep Jay in the dark about it, and had he simply let Jay have his precious little tape things could've ended better than they had.

It'd make sense why Alex attacked Jessica for the second time, going by this theory.
At first it seemed ok since Jessica didn't remember anything about Alex. But since Hoodie was intent on pulling Jessica back into things Alex decided she'd inevitably find out again and had to be disposed of. That would explain his reluctance to shoot her decently enough.


Also, Starkley, you say Tim has nothing against Jay right now. But we can see Tim, albeit trying to suppress it, reaaally wants to hurt Alex.
If Jay tries to keep TTA from killing Alex off, whether because he doesn't want to hurt his old friend or because Alex may be his only chance at saving Jessica, that could quickly put Jay at odds with Masky.
I'd like to predict Alex may pull a Chancellor Palpatine and get Jay to save him from TTA when he's finally cornered.

PostPosted: Sun Oct 13, 2013 9:00 pm
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Starkley
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Joined: 12 Jul 2012
Posts: 326

 		Re: Alignment Theory and Character Analysis
Motives of TTA and Alex; Character Dynamics, and Endgame Predictions
kiar wrote:
Starkley wrote:
"You are not trusted" and "Another failure" could be TTA referring to how much Tim has screwed up recently (Letting Jay find that tape, losing Jay's trust).


My biggest problem with that is that it was Hoody who alerted Jay to the fact that the tape even existed in the first place. If he hadn't explicitly shown the tape in his video, Tim would never have had to try and hide it from Jay. It seems to me that that was Hoody working directly against Tim, trying to put a strain in Tim/Jay's alliance. My question is why Masky would not want them working together. What does he have against Tim, and why did he stop working with Tim/Masky in the first place?


Yeah, after going back through TTA's videos it seems more like TTA has wanted Jay to find these tapes because they lead Jay more towards the direction that TTA needs him to go (TO-related areas, new locations, what have you). My new variation on this theory is that Tim is already acting counter to TTA's wishes - TTA wanted Jay to have that tape, and Tim was hiding it from him.

However, I don't think this necessarily affects the theory I put forth too much. Tim is still separate from TTA with his own motives; Jay is still separate from Tim. (Although recent posts by Jay hint that Jay is actually playing it smart and not rushing towards TTA after being betrayed by Tim, which is refreshing.) Basically, the idea that Tim is the one going against TTA right now seems to provide greater strength for the idea that "File" is addressed towards Tim moreso than Jay, since TTA would want to address these transgressions.

"Deeper and deeper we go" could be TTA telling Tim that TTA is now focusing on working with Jay rather than Tim. Tim is untrusted, Jay is the new focus. It would be pretty interesting if 77 actually turned out to be a bonafide showdown between Masky and Hoody, since Tim going off the grid could mean he's donned The Mask again. But that's more spec than theory.
(Bonus spec: Hoody could have more influence in creating Masky states than originally thought; originally Tim was the one coughing and going through blackouts while he was Masky, allegedly, and now Jay is exhibiting these traits more severely than even Tim.)

Anyway, I acknowledge your point and I agree with it now.

ToTheArcanine wrote:

Concerning Hoodie pointing out the "Tape of Distrust", I think he's been wanting Jay to see the tape for a while now. As others have pointed out, TTA has been hinting at Jessica's disappearance in his vids for a while now. He must've then known what was on the tape and apparently Tim knew as well.

What does this mean? It means that Hoodie flaunted the tape to Jay not because he wanted to break the two apart but because he wanted Tim to get on with it and show Jay the video. The fellowship only broke up because Tim kept trying to keep Jay in the dark about it, and had he simply let Jay have his precious little tape things could've ended better than they had.


Yep, and I agree with this now too, I've even been basing more recent theories on this premise. See above, and thanks. :O

Quote:
Also, Starkley, you say Tim has nothing against Jay right now. But we can see Tim, albeit trying to suppress it, reaaally wants to hurt Alex.
If Jay tries to keep TTA from killing Alex off, whether because he doesn't want to hurt his old friend or because Alex may be his only chance at saving Jessica, that could quickly put Jay at odds with Masky.
I'd like to predict Alex may pull a Chancellor Palpatine and get Jay to save him from TTA when he's finally cornered.


Yeah, I kind of acknowledged that Jay and Tim's motivations aren't entirely compatible, in that while they're both opposed to Alex, Jay isn't concerned so much with revenge as with finding out what happened to his friends, (as far as we know).

However, given the level of humanity Tim has displayed, I don't know how ready he would be to just forsake someone in order to get vengeance on Alex. That's too much of an Alex move. I think in the long-run, as long as Tim isn't in Masky mode, he and Jay have no long-term gains to be had from being each others' opponents, especially since they're in the middle of TTA and Alex's game. Again, given the recent tweets in which Jay appears to be trying to get in touch with Tim, Jay seems to have realized this.

Thanks for all your input guys Surprised
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 14, 2013 11:35 am
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